Author
Topic: The Bluewater (Read 524 times)

Last Saturday were the perfect conditions for offshore fishing. The only issue is I don't have an offshore boat. After years of trying to convince me, my buddy finally talked me into taking my bay boat to try an run down some snapper. The gulf was flat, well as flat as it can be. Maybe 1/2-1 ft slow rollers that had pretty good spacing. We went out 10-12 miles to try to get into some Red Snapper. He brought some heavy gear he borrowed from his brother and we rigged them up for bottom fishing. We get to the spot, they drop down and are waiting for a bite. While this was happening the surface started boiling and King and Spanish Mackerel exploded out of the water. The Kings were chasing the Spanish. I happened to bring my bay rod in case we encountered some chicken dolphin (small mahi). I said what the hell casted out a Yo-Zuri i had on and first cast, boom, nice Spanish Mackerel. I laughed to myself after we got it off, cast again, boom..... second Spanish Mack. At this point I handed my buddy my rod he cast out and after a few cranks of the reel a big King hits the bait, jumps about 4 ft out of the water and almost lands in the boat and snaps the line. We all got a pretty good laugh out of that and figured that not only was the action over, but my reel was also probably nuked. Luckily I had a few more Yo Zuri crank baits, and we rigged it back up with 80 lb mono leader and hoped for the best with the reel. About 20 minutes later they were fishing the bottom again while I was just casting while we were tied up to a gas rig. Seems the Kings came to play that day cause it was one blow up after another. Lost several baits but managed to land another on my last crank bait. At one point I even had hooked into a Ling (Cobia) and somehow managed to fight that booger to the boat, again still on my bay rod, but it got away on a failed gaff attempt. After the loss of the last crank bait i had, i tied on this big spinner bait I had for some reason and fired it out there to see what happened. It seems like as soon as it landed this big King was on it. Somehow someway she didn't cut that line with its teeth and the fight was on. My buddy disconnected from the rig and we chased her down. Probably a 20 min fight, but after several long runs and pulling my boat around, she tired out and got to the boat for a proper gaff shot. Needless to say, i was worn out and so was my reel. For those interested to know my rod/reel rig was an older 7" Kistler Helium medium-light action rod with a Concept 13 TX edition reel. 30 lbs suffix 832 braid with 80 lb mono leader. I have no clue how this rod and reel held up and landed these fish. This one is going down in the books. Ended up boating 3 Kings, 2 Spanish and a Snapper. Released a second under sized snapper, lost a Ling, and if I had to guess probably had 15-20 other hookups with Kings either spitting the bit or cutting the line. The most fun I have had on the water in a LONG time.